Sunday, August 21, 2016

Question : Can a believer be still a slave of sin after his or her salvation? Why I am asking you this question is, a Bible teacher and a very good preacher of the Word of God referred to this passage from John 8:34, "...Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin" and pointed out that in this verse Jesus was in context speaking to believing Jews, and therefore it is better for a believer to acknowledge to God that we are slave to sin when we are involved in sinful habits that enslaves us. When we are honest in admitting to God that we are slaves to sin, then God delivers us from sinful bondage's he said. Is this reasoning right or wrong? Who was Jesus speaking to actually, to believers or unbelievers?

Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus name! See to find the context in a passage especially in New Testament, we should check with the immediate context of the preceding and succeeding verses, and then still if we are not clear with the audience to which Jesus was speaking to, immediately we should refer to the bigger context of the size of the crowd in the verses beyond the immediate one and deduct the percentage of changes that happened among the crowd to know how many are still in the old crowd after the changes.

Here it is, "28 Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. 29 And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” 30 As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. 37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, becauseMy word has no place in you. 38 I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”" (John 8:28-38, NKJV).

In the above verses Jesus was first speaking to the religious Jews generally and was telling to them that only they will come to understand that He is their Messiah when they lift Him on up on the Cross to die for their sins. Then he said to them that He does nothing without God the Father, whatever He had taught Jesus, those are the only things that He is speaking about, nothing more or nothing less than that. Then Jesussaid that God the Father is with Himand that He has not left Him alone because He always does things pleasing to Him. At this point of time from the general group of religious Jews, hearing the Word of Jesus some believed Him and were saved. Then immediately to the brand new born again believers He said, "31...If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." In other words, all the new believers Jesus wanted them to grow and become mature disciple of Him in their thoughts and actions. Jesus promises to them that if they continue to abide in His word, they will be His disciple. And Jesus continued saying that if they come to know the truth that all their sins were forgiven and get the assurance of it by continuing to be a disciple of His (1 John 3:24; 4:13; John 14:21), then the truth of the forgiveness of all the past, present and future sins from God will free their lives of all condemnation of the enemy Satan and his demonic cohorts forever (Rom 8:1).

Remember, Jesus was still speaking the truth before the religious hard nut unsaved Jews among whom some were supernaturally saved by the Father at that time, so immediately the religious Jews who were still unsaved shot back to Jesus saying, "We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” These religious Jews who were unsaved were already politically enslaved by Romans, religiously enslaved by pride and spiritually enslaved by sin nature acting within them. To these Jews, "...34 Jesus replied to them saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." In other words to the prideful religious unsaved Jews, Jesus was saying, "All humans are slaves to sin by the sin nature that acts within them to make them commit sin (Eccl 7:20; Jer 17:9; Rom 7:20, 24; 1 John 1:8), a slave of sin who is a unbeliever does not continue to live in this physical body [i.e. house or temple of God (John 2:19)] after his death because sin's wages is death [i.e. separation from God and his goodness of living in the physical body](Rom 6:23). But a believer who is God's son will live in their body after their physical death because I will come again with them from heaven to raise them up in the resurrection of life (Gal 3:26; John 5:29), after which they will live forever with God enjoying His goodness in their meta physical supernatural body for eternity ahead. Only when I set you free from the slavery of sin by forgiving you of your sins, only then you will become spiritually free from the slavery of sin by becoming a son of God."

Hearing what Jesus said to the unbelievers, they did not understand the spiritual truth of his message, and so again He bluntly gives them plain understanding by saying further to them, "37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38 I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”"". In other words Jesus tells the unbelieving Jews, 'I know that you are Abraham's physical descendant, but that doesn't make you a child of God, but hearing my word and receiving it by faith only makes you a child of God. You are trying to kill me because you are a unbeliever still, I speak what God My Father reveals to me in my mind, you do what your father Satan tries to show you to do in your mind.'

The unbelievers are pawn in the hands of Satan and his demons, so Jesus' message of a slave of sin is not to the believers but rather was a message to the unbeliever as the context has been expounded clearly in the above paragraphs.

After believing Jesus through faith, we are no more a slave of sin but a son of God and a daughter of God (Gal 3:26). According to God, sin shall not have any more dominion over you unless you give it power over you by giving in to the temptation to sin (Rom 6:14; Jam 1:13-15).

When you have sinned, sin's power over you can once again get broken, when you confess your sins again to God through faith in the blood of Jesus and the word of God that promises cleansing from all sins (1 John 1:7, 9; Heb 4:14-16; Rev 12:11). In other words, when we acknowledge to God that we have sinned when we sin, the light of God breaks away any sin that tries to bind us in its chain of darkness, and the blood of Jesus immediately starts to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. This is the true deliverance that we need in our lives again and again as a believer, and nothing more than this. Though sometimes some besetting sins might seem to shake our faith whether we are slave of sin or the son of God, our faith should safely rest on the faithfulness of God in Jesus name, and not on any methods or means that God uses sometimes to deliver a believer from sinful addictions or habits. We cannot become any more than what we are already in Christ Jesus. That is our highest position before God now and forever! We as a saint might sin, but that cannot make us a sinner because we have the option to confess our sin again to God and become cleansed by the blood of Jesus and be washed by the word of truth. We are not sinners who try to become saints, we are saints who sin sometimes but stay as saints because we are in Christ Jesus and His blood washes away all our sins! Hallelujah!

The reasoning by the preacher was wrong, because the context taken was focused on one word John 8:34, then it was wrongly related with the preceding verses John 8:30-31 and the surrounding first audience of Jesus who were still unbelievers around Him were neglected totally. To make it simple, we can say a group of unbelievers were there. When they hear the words of Jesus, some believed Him and got saved. Then Jesus speaks to those some believers to continue as His disciple and be free from the power of sin, immediately the prideful majority of Jewish unbelievers surrounding them were sarcastic in their reply, then Jesus speaks to those unbelieving Jews, of which John 8:34 is a answer to them. Just because some of the Jews were saved doesn't mean that we should assume wrongly from that point on, all have become believers and that Jesus is speaking to the believers from that point onward.

Because we are God's sons now, a believer can no more be a slave of sin after his salvation. Only those who have sin can get condemned (Rom 6:23), because all the sins of believers have been taken up by Jesus through His baptism that He received from John the Baptist, and all the just demand of God for freeing all sinners have been paid in full by Jesus' sinless life lived on earth and the death on the Cross (Matt 3:15; John 19:30), now there is no more any condemnation for the sin of all believers (Rom 8:1). When Christ rose from the dead, it was a message from God to all humanity that they who will believe Christ have been forgiven of all their past, present and future sins, and according to God the Father, before His eyes all these believers will no more be in their sins anymore as God has imputed Jesus' perfect righteousness in their spiritual account in heaven from the moment they have become God's adopted child in His family forevermore (1 Cor 15:14, 16-17; 2 Cor 5:17-18, 21). Hallelujah!!! Glory be to God!!!

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